Early Risers.

[polybear]

20 minutes ago, southern42 said:

Not since I used to sit and watch Sesame Street with (and without!) the kids many, many moons ago.

We love trash!

 

Sesame Street - love it.  As for trash, this Bear was born to skip dive.....

[One of the best times for skip diving was my first place of work at Hatfield, on a Tuesday after a Bank Holiday weekend; the skips there were the HUGE rectangular ones.  Wives would say to husbands "You're getting the Garage/Shed cleared of cr@p this B/H weekend".  Husbands bring it to work on the tuesday and chuck it in the skips (no CCTV in those days at work); my mate and I used to make daily visits to the skip and have a good root thru'.....  Happy days.]

[J. S. Bach]

20 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Sesame Street - love it.  As for trash, this Bear was born to skip dive.....

[One of the best times for skip diving was my first place of work at Hatfield, on a Tuesday after a Bank Holiday weekend; the skips there were the HUGE rectangular ones.  Wives would say to husbands "You're getting the Garage/Shed cleared of cr@p this B/H weekend".  Husbands bring it to work on the tuesday and chuck it in the skips (no CCTV in those days at work); my mate and I used to make daily visits to the skip and have a good root thru'.....  Happy days.]

It is called dumpster diving here!

Edited July 14, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[J. S. Bach]

49 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

It’s only the inside that vaguely resembles a bottle kiln. I never bothered to think about how they made those insulators. Do they still glaze them in different colors? The ones around here are all a deep red, which might natural. 

I suspect that they are a color in the brown family, red was almost never used. I just searched through about 620 photos in my collection file and could only find these that remotely resemble something in the red family:

If you can, a well-lit photo of one that you are mentioning would be appreciated.

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[Florence Locomotive Works]

20 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

I suspect that they are a color in the brown family, red was almost never used. I just searched through about 620 photos in my collection file and could only find these that remotely resemble something in the red family:

If you can, a well-lit photo of one that you are mentioning would be appreciated.

 

The second picture is the exact color of the ones we have, but I’ll try to remember to snap a photo. 

[Sir TophamHatt]

Well, first day of new job was mixed.

Social distancing means I couldn't actually sit with the trainer but opposite them... so I couldn't see the screens.

Next time should be much better though as they're sorting it so we can sit sort of together.

 

However, hopes of a new car are dashed as a new ulez charge in the city I now work means I'd have to pay £8 a day.

Yet, the car has free / £30 road tax? Don't understand why they don't just base both charges off the same system.

 

At least a new power supply should arrive tomorrow so I can finally add these pesky signals to the layout!

[Ozexpatriate]

9 hours ago, NGT6 1315 said:

I am quite sure there are businesses where people are more likely to behave in an uncooperative manner to begin with. Public transport, for example, has, in my impression, long been a field where customers are more likely to challenge staff authority, and to do so in a way which leaves a lot to be desired as to common manners.

 

There may, of course, be varying levels to this tendency in different regions, but it is my impression, based on digesting numerous such reports (whether they be news, police bulletins and other) over the years on one hand and personal assessments from friends who are also working in public transport, that said tendency has, in fact, grown significantly at least over the past fifteen or so years.

 

I suppose the underlying causes will be complex, but I cannot help but wonder whether factors such as deregulation, competition and the concomitant promotion of a customer/provider mindset (where of course "the customer is always right"…er, nope…) may play a fairly important role in this context.

In my view it has it's roots in how people interpret the concept of living in a "free society".

 

A "free society" (as it is meant) is something of an oxymoron. People often interpret "free" to mean they can do anything they want short of murdering each other. This of course is anarchy - not a society. To form a "society" we surrender certain individual "freedoms" to form a more beneficial collective whole. 

 

An essential component of living in a society during a pandemic is being willing to act in the best interests of the society and not just ourselves - like wearing masks.

 

Without being overly political this distinction is very clear in a graph produced by Johns Hopkins showing at a rough level of correlation (based on political leanings) the infection impacts of personal individual valuations of the societal compact versus individual liberties.

The virus of course does not care about one's politics and the initial peak was driven by the mid-Atlantic states and was focused on the high density New York area. Since then however, the "mask resentment" from people who value individual liberties over the societal compact* is startling in terms of its impact.

 

* generalization alert

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

The problem with masks is that people seem to think that wearing one protects them from the virus so they can safely be closer to others.  It doesn't, it just reduces the risk by about 10%. That's not an argument against wearing them- I do in shops and on PT-  but it is one in favour of proper public education about the risks.

I am confident that the combination of mask wearing and distancing reduces the risk of viral transmission (from the mask wearer) by a factor much greater than 10%.

 

The necessity of mask wearing is to prevent the spread by infected people including those who are asymptomatic.

 

If we learn that this virus is spread by non-droplet aerosols (meaning free floating virus particles) all bets are off but there is no question that someone wearing a mask will greatly reduce the distribution of high-viral load droplets from free sneeze distances of several metres down to a 0.5m or so. This is simple physics and is demonstrated in a number of experiments.

 

To rigorously prevent being infected, one would need to wear the N95, faceshield, gown and gloves combination.

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Those who refuse to wear face masks are just being selfish IMHO.

Yes.

 

They are royally inconvenient and uncomfortable but essential. Unless, like certain politicians and athletes we get tested every couple of days or so, no one can really "know" if they are spreading the virus - particularly younger people.

[AndyID]

An interesting story about a potential therapy.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53369103

 

I hope it works!

[New Haven Neil]

Baz, the plod were chasing kids on trail bikes up the beach at Crimdon.  They had got themselves Yam WR450's and the voice-over was bigging them up like they were something really special - but they had trouble catching up to a kid on a two-stroke 'crosser.  A bigger two stroke would have left them for dust.

 

BoD, in an earlier series when the followed Interceptors in Essex, their ARV Sergeant (not seen on TV, he didn't want to be seen) at the time works for Trackshack now.  Nice bloke.  Hi Pete! (Lurks).

 

Wet here this afternoon, Mrs NHN went to work on her bike this morning, when it was sunny - oops.  This is of course, my fault.

[Ozexpatriate]

I looked for the comet Neowise last night. It should have been visible. It was either hidden by trees on the horizon, some light cloud or the general brightness of the dusk sky in the suburbs. (The night sky here is really dreadful. There's something about the Willamette Valley that makes for wretched night skies.) I'll try again tonight - the weather is as scintillating as summers here properly are but I think I need to be in a darker night area with a clear northern horizon to be successful.

 

More positively the late night comics are back on the air after a two-week holiday around the 4th of July. Even though I was up late, I went to sleep being able to laugh at all the chaos and sturm und drang. This was healthy for me.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Its warm and sticky here at the moment and Arthur Itis is insistent its going to rain. I've been looking at some other sheds as I'm seriously thinking of cancelling the order and going elsewhere. I've found a shed that I like but they don't do erection and its six weeks for delivery. I wish I'd found them earlier but I'll keep them in mind. Time to put the kettle on, be back later.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

In my view it has it's roots in how people interpret the concept of living in a "free society".

 

A "free society" (as it is meant) is something of an oxymoron. People often interpret "free" to mean they can do anything they want short of murdering each other. This of course is anarchy - not a society. To form a "society" we surrender certain individual "freedoms" to form a more beneficial collective whole. 

 

An essential component of living in a society during a pandemic is being willing to act in the best interests of the society and not just ourselves - like wearing masks.

 

Without being overly political this distinction is very clear in a graph produced by Johns Hopkins showing at a rough level of correlation (based on political leanings) the infection impacts of personal individual valuations of the societal compact versus individual liberties.

The virus of course does not care about one's politics and the initial peak was driven by the mid-Atlantic states and was focused on the high density New York area. Since then however, the "mask resentment" from people who value individual liberties over the societal compact* is startling in terms of its impact.

 

* generalization alert

 

If nothing else all the US news coverage of the  virus is teaching me a lot about the US constitution. Which  many on one side of the political divide there seem to  treat much like they treat the bible - cherry-pick out the bits that suit them then bang on about their ;rights' endlessly.

 

Rather than a document that sets out the equality of all men (and women!),  in their hands it is just an excuse to act like selfish clowns and whinge about anything that they don;t like to do as being  a transgression on their 'rights' which are more important than anyone elses 'rights' let alone society as a whole.

 

There are occasional rumblings here that we need a similar bill of rights or whatever but after this I am glad we havent got one, since it seems to be an excuse to be a selfish ar5e clown - there seems little of the spirit of the community as a whole coming together as a society like the UK in the blitz (imagine them there - "Its my RIGHT to leave my lights on!") or even here during the bushfires.

 

Stupidest thing I saw yesterday, and thats just yesterday.

 

Grilled cheeseshop owning woman in Florida announces she will give away free grilled cheese whatevers to the first 100 people who arrive without wearing a mask. Crowds converge, woman in flat upstairs rightly concerned about large crowd of simpletons calls police.

 

Police arrive, take away womans liquor -  I assume she broke some law. Protesters arrive and bang on about it being the USA not communist China. Then chant  stuff before saying a prayer for the cheeseshop owning lady, as you do

. Favourite woman is at 2:20 or so - "This is a virus that has a 99.6 percent recovery rate, this is virus that  is very well contained, this is a virus that the CDC is going to remove epidemic status from..."  And tells the woman in flat rightly concerned about viral spread in crowd  that its her 'right' to stay indoors with the windows shut!

 

Wonder where she gets her news from and who she'll vote for.

 

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by monkeysarefun

[Coombe Barton]

... and a flying dog ..

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/07/14/conference-day-two/

[brianusa]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Slovenly, sullen, foul mouthed - these are Just some of the attributes of some “public facing member of staff“ that I have encountered in the past. I wonder how much of the poor attitude and service I have encountered in the past is a residue or consequence of Britain’s class structure?

 

Being from another era, the current class structure is not that different from the ones that came before except now wealth is the great separator, not social class; in other words, the have's and have not's!   Sadly there are more of the have not's who face a bleak future who unless they win the lottery, will never be able to compete in the world, let alone with the have's.

       Brian.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Afternoon all,

 

Right, time for a good moan about the postal service.

I recently ordered a 3d printed (meaning plastic) kit for a broad gauge locomotive from Long Island. It shipped via UPS Expedited a week ago. The estimated delivery date was on last Friday. It hadn’t even left Long Island on Friday. Then on Saturday it says it’s arrived in Carrollton Texas, and will be transferred to USPS. The package has been “transferring” for nearly four days now! So now I’m rather worried that said package is sitting in a truck in the Texas heat, with its rather heat sensitive contents melting. 
 

And what really annoys me is that UPS regularly flys cargo aircraft into and out of Tulsa International (it’s not actually international) Airport. And if I had known these delays would be happening, I would have been happy to pay for airmail. Now I wonder how the sausages my dad ordered via FedEx two-day airmail will fair. 
 

On a more positive note here’s a nice photo I took from the doctors office window today. This is of “Utica Square”, a posh shopping and dining area. My old school is just out of sight on the left. And if you see a square on the horizon to the left of the rather nice “Tuscan Skyscraper”, and zoom in, below it you can see the roof of my new school. On Fridays after school I normally wander over here and get myself a slice of lemon pound cake from Starbucks, as a celebration for making it through the week. The “Tuscan Skyscraper”, looks to me like what Paddington Station would have looked like if Brunel did it in his “Italianate” style. 

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Baz, the plod were chasing kids on trail bikes up the beach at Crimdon.  They had got themselves Yam WR450's and the voice-over was bigging them up like they were something really special - but they had trouble catching up to a kid on a two-stroke 'crosser.  A bigger two stroke would have left them for dust.

 

 

 

Plod on bikes tend to have common sense, along with a real understanding that things can go very wrong, very quickly - with a real chance of serious injury, or worse.  Whereas kids have a natural superhuman belief that they are invincible.....

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

 

Plod on bikes tend to have common sense, along with a real understanding that things can go very wrong, very quickly - with a real chance of serious injury, or worse.  Whereas kids have a natural superhuman belief that they are invincible.....

I think I lost that belief when I started school...

Edited July 14, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Gwiwer]

10 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Those who refuse to wear face masks are just being selfish IMHO.

Or exempt.  

 

The UK government - and the devolved administrations - have a sensible list of exemptions.  They vary slightly between the home nations notably that children under 11 are exempt in England but under 5 in Scotland.  

 

There is no requirement to prove exemption.  Police (and in London TfL inspectors) can ask for your reason and must accept it if you provide a valid answer.  There are many versions of an exemption card including a smartphone version which can be used and a sunflower lanyard is not too hard to obtain as another sign.  But we don't have to go about advertising the fact that we are disabled, suffer from asthma or panic attacks or any other reason.  We can if we choose remain part of the crowd.  

 

I carry two versions.  I have the TfL one on my phone and the Network Rail exemption badge attached to my work photo-ID.  If challenged in shops, pubs or anywhere else for that matter I have no problem in quietly pulling out the phone and displaying the exemption screen privately to the challenger.  

 

Opinions and attitudes vary.  I take exception to the US mask-denialists  And I take exception to the large groups of youth who choose to travel by public transport with none or very few bothering to cover up.  I accept some may be entitled to exemption.  Perhaps 15 - 20% of the population is.  But not 25 out of a group of 30.  There is a definite "invincibility factor" among a certain section of the younger population.  Or a straightforward intent to ignore any and all rules.  I'll bet some of them don't have tickets either but it is not my place to enquire on either account. 

 

On the other hand when an opportunity arises to gently remind someone ..... two teenagers boarded the Chessington train today which happened to be awaiting time in the platform.  They sat down, masks in hands, and pulled out their phones.  The train went nowhere (because it was not time to go) however I was able to indicate to them that the masks needed to be worn and the train wasn't going until they complied.  Gentle and non-verbal advice.  And the train then left right on time once they had masked up and the clock had ticked over.  

 

It is time for bed.  Tomorrow is another day with its own challenges to face.  Until then sleep well and soundly.  

[New Haven Neil]

20 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Plod on bikes tend to have common sense, along with a real understanding that things can go very wrong, very quickly - with a real chance of serious injury, or worse.  Whereas kids have a natural superhuman belief that they are invincible.....

 

It was a straight line job along wet sand - little risk.  Simply the wrong tool for the job, the poor bobbies just have to get on with it. As you might imagine, here they have the usual plod traffic bikes, and other, more appropriate bikes for TT week!  Some plain wrapper ones too, as I used to work for said plod outfit I know what they are, visitors don't! 

[Coombe Barton]

2 hours ago, Sir TophamHatt said:

However, hopes of a new car are dashed as a new ulez charge in the city I now work means I'd have to pay £8 a day.

Yet, the car has free / £30 road tax? Don't understand why they don't just base both charges off the same system.

If that's Birmingham then logic does not apply. The Ring Road is the list, and the ajoroty of car parks are just inside the ring road in Eastside. Previous inaction is contributing to this.

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Simon G]

Evening all,

 

CT scan done today, which will hopefully confirm that the lymphoma has not returned while I have been on the maintenance treatment for the last 2 years.  Appointment with consultant to discuss results is in a couple of weeks.  The CT scan meant that I had to wear a face mask for the first time during the current pandemic.  I didn’t find it a problem, except for the glasses steaming up the whole time

 

Weather here continues to be as carp as it has been for a good part of June and all of July so far, ie damp, breezy and cool. Despite this, we managed a walk out this afternoon.  Also done today was more picking of blackcurrants and loganberries, and more size reduction of the old shed.  It is slowly being cut up and stored in the new shed, pending being used as fuel in the woodburner!

[Tony_S]

28 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

If that's Birmingham then logic does not apply. The Ring Road is the list, and the ajoroty of car parks are just inside the ring road in Eastside. Previous inaction is contributing to this.

I had a look to see what charges I would incur in Birmingham (though I have been driven by my Midlands relatives on recent visits). Both our cars get a “ no charge” for the Midlands clean air zones. One is a Cat 4 and the other is Cat 6, both petrol.

Tony

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Again I’m not up to speed with what’s been going on but I know facemasks whilst out shopping hs been touched on.  This is a subject that I discussed with the manager at work. At the moment no customers are allowed in the pharmacy, social distancing is not really possible, especially at 2m. We are thinking about ‘opening up’ with the 1m plus requirement  and allowing two people in at a time. We were thinking of allowing this from the end of July, when face masks in shops becomes compulsory. We have however decided to wait a further two weeks for customers to get into the habit of wearing mask whilst out shopping. We haven’t time/ can’t be bothered explaining the requirement so think by then things will have settled down and people take it for grant3d that they should be wearing a mask.

Going back a little, approximately 99% of our prescriptions are received electronically now. That means the patient orders their  prescription and is sent directly to the pharmacy of their choice without actually having to go to the GP’s surgery. It can be assembled and made ready for collection.This means the prescription can be collected at the patients convenience, whilst in town shopping, at the supermarket or even at their local independent. Things aren’t so backward in the UK.

Thats it for now so goodnight,

Robert